Isonokami furukioimani narabekoshi mukashinoatoo matatazunetsutsu

English Translation

At Isonokami,
the old set beside the new
as I have long done,
seeking out yet once again
the traces of former days

Meaning

The old I have set beside the new, going back once more and again to the traces the ancients left.

Commentary

Book One: Odoro no Shita

Go-Toba, the eighty-second sovereign, was the fourth son of Takakura. After the Taira fled west with the child emperor Antoku, the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa summoned his grandsons to look at them; the third prince wept and would not go near him, but the fourth prince climbed at once onto his knee and seemed fond of him, so the Cloistered Emperor exclaimed that here was a true grandson, and in the eighth month of Juei 2 set him on the throne at the age of four. The sacred sword had gone down into the sea with the former emperor, so that for the first time an accession took place without the three regalia. After the Cloistered Emperor's death Go-Toba ruled in his own right; the realm was at peace and the way of poetry flourished. In Kenkyu 9, at nineteen, he abdicated to Tsuchimikado and began his cloistered rule, building a villa at Minase where he spent himself on the pleasures of the seasons. He held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds, established the Bureau of Poetry, had the Shinkokinshu compiled, and held its celebratory banquet in Genkyu 2. In Jogen 4 he set Tsuchimikado aside and raised Juntoku to the throne, and Juntoku too gave himself to poetry. At Minase the retired emperor played go and small archery, explained the old precedent of the stakes, and had a guardsman prepare the dish described by Murasaki Shikibu—in everything he showed the range of his gifts. At the selected poetry contest of Kempo 2, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi of the Northern Guard was called on for nine poems; the Yoshimizu bishop Jien offered the retired emperor a long poem, and Teika wrote a long poem in reply on the spot. The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado composed a hundred poems privately, showed them to Ietaka and Teika, and exchanged poems with Teika.
Go-Toba's personal name was Takahira; he was the fourth son of Takakura, and his mother was Shichijoin, daughter of Nobutaka, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Tsuchimikado's personal name was Tamehito, and his mother was Shomeimon'in, daughter of the priest Noen and adopted daughter of the Inner Minister Michichika. Juntoku's personal name was Morinari, and his mother was Shumeimon'in. The regent Kujo Yoshitsune was called a saint of poetry, and the compilers of the Shinkokinshu were Michitomo, Ariie, Teika, Ietaka and Masatsune. The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, Fujiwara no Kanemitsu, and the Middle Counselor Sukezane, Fujiwara no Sukezane, were each called on for screen poems at an accession thanksgiving. Kunaikyo was descended from Emperor Murakami through the Minister of the Left Toshifusa, and was the daughter of a man who died holding only the fourth rank. Fujiwara no Hideyoshi served in the retired emperor's Northern Guard, and the Yoshimizu bishop Jien was a poet-monk who long held the office of Tendai abbot.
The collection then compiled is called the Shinkokinshu. On the twenty-sixth day of the third month of Genkyu 2 the celebratory banquet was held at the Kasuga hall, and it was much talked of in the world.
Thinking of the days of the Kokinshu in the Engi era, the retired emperor composed this poem.
The regent Yoshitsune's poem follows it, and other poems came one after another, but the narrator passes over them as too tedious to set down.

The first line is a pillow word for what is old, borrowing a place name to lead into age. The second line takes the title of the Kokinshu apart and writes it in, setting old against new. The third line, with its verb of coming, expresses the continuing labour of compilation. The traces in the fourth line are both the strokes left by the ancients and the path they walked. The reiterative particle at the close leaves the sentence unfinished and the feeling still running on. In nothing more than a pillow word and the buried title, the poem states the whole occasion of the collection: that following the Kokinshu of the Engi era he has gathered old and new again. It answers the preface poem "Imamomata mukashiokakeba masukagami furinuruyoyono atonikasanen", which likewise entrusts the work of earlier hands to the word for traces.

Author

Go-Toba In

Source

Masukagami

Other